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How-To Geek

The design of the ubiquitous drip coffee maker takes advantage of basic physics to keep costs down with minimal parts. Watch the video and you’ll never look at the old pot the same again.

Water goes in and coffee comes out. Simple, right? Although a coffee maker might be simple to use and employ minimal parts to get the job done (and keep the cost down in the process) the physics of the process is fascinating. Check out the above video to see how a coffee maker is engineered.

Jason Fitzpatrick is warranty-voiding DIYer and all around geek. When he's not documenting mods and hacks he's doing his best to make sure a generation of college students graduate knowing they should put their pants on one leg at a time and go on to greatness, just like Bruce Dickinson. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.

A quick study of Leonardo’s sketches and you will find variations of the physics of the “bubble pump”… The serendipity of this discovery along with the conception of “Italian Roast” lead to one of art’s greatest enigmas, when he was memorialized asking, “Mona, where the hell do I plug this damn thing in ??”

I remember years ago, reading in a book that described how common household gadgets worked, and the coffeemaker’s bubble pump mechanism was called a “gurgleator”, I guess because it makes a gurgling sound. It’s really a direct copy from the principle of the coffee percolator. Your old Farberware electric percolator is therefore the father of the modern drip coffeemaker!

GEEK TRIVIA

DID YOU KNOW?

A staple of college and summer parties, the Jell-O shot was invented by mathematician Tom Lehrer during his 1950s service in the military as a way of circumventing liquor restrictions at a base Christmas party.